My Best Friend
by platedlizard
Summary: [One-Shot] What happens when a women's life-long imaginary best friend shows up for real?


Hi, it's me! Josan in Trouble is give me a bit, um, trouble, so I thought I would write this vignette for you all to enjoy. This is admittedly a self- insertion. I really do have an imaginary horse-friend that has been with me for as long as I can remember. He's not a Companion, but if I had grown up in Valdemar he (or she as the case may be) might have been. Yes, sometimes I'm lame. Valdemar and everything in it belongs to Mercedes Lackey, the story is my own. Hope you like it!  
  
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My Best Friend.  
  
When I was five my best friend was a shining white horse with eyes the color of the summer sky. I called her Daira because I liked the name. No one could see her but me. I talked to her and plated flowers in her mane. She followed me everywhere while I helped Mother with the chores or played in the fields. She even followed me into my dreams where we would play among the clouds and stars, chasing one and other across the fields of the sky.  
  
When I was ten I told my best girl friend about Daira. I didn't tell her that Daira was my real best friend. I didn't want to hurt my girl friend's feelings. She told me that she had an imaginary horse-friend too; a black stallion with silver eyes named Tyche because she liked the sound of it. We would race Tyche and Daira through the fields and across distant mountains. The sky was our playground and our dreams were our limits. We could do anything.  
  
When I was fifteen I kept my best friend a secret close to my heart. I dreamed of her appearing for real to Choose me. I would be a Herald in Shining White Armor. We would fight evil and save imperiled princes. We would ride through the land righting wrongs and spreading the Queen's Law and Justice. The vaulting sky would mirror our joy and happiness, and if we died it would be heroically. Bards would sing of us.  
  
When I was twenty my best friend paced calmly by my side, unseen by all save me. She would share my quiet moments and my dreams of a home and farm and milch cows and a lovely neighbor lad who loved me. Thoughts of our wedding soon to be had filled my mind and heart and I knew that he and I were meant to be together forever. My best friend would be at our wedding, but I was the only one who knew she was there.  
  
When I was twenty-five I had two children, a boy as lovely as his father, and a sweet infant girl to bring joy to a mother's heart. My little son would try to teach and protect his infant sister. My best friend was little more then a warm presence in my heart. My thoughts were full of children and husband; milch cows and crops. However, every once in a while I would see my best friend's flashing white legs and sapphire blue eyes in the corner of my mind's eye and turn and look, but as always she was unseen by all save me.  
  
When I was thirty I was walking home from the market, my thoughts filled with husband and crops; milch cows and children. I turned a corner and there was my best friend; no longer a ghostly presence, but fully clothed in flesh. Her sapphire eyes stared strait into my heart, recognition sparking deep inside them. I felt my heart race and heard the blood thunder in my ears and I knew she had come for me. And yet, I asked myself, is this what I want? I was happy with my milch cows and children; husband and crops. Dreams of a mundane and happy life.  
  
My best friend's ear's pricked, and her gaze turned to something behind me. I heard the sound of our plow horse trotting along the road, cartwheels rattling behind. I turned and look and saw my lovely son drive our empty cart to pick up the plow parts from the black smith. He stopped and stared and dismounting forgot the cart and horse. My beautiful son walked over to my best friend and gazed for one endless moment into her eyes. In the corner of my heart and mind reserved for her I could hear the murmur of my best friend's voice. My son turned and looked at me, perhaps a little uncertain, and I smiled with my heart and soul and told them to go with my blessings. Who could possibly guard and guide my son as well as my best friend?  
  
I watched them travel out of sight. Just before they disappear my best friend and my darling son stopped and turned and waved good-bye.  
  
I returned home to my husband and daughter and told them the news. My husband smiled, proud of our son; my daughter cried for she missed her brother already. As I took the horse and cart to the black smith I smiled and said good-bye to my best friend, and in my mind's eye my best friend turned and paced away with my brave son sitting proudly on her back. I turned my mind to mundane things like my daughter and husband; plow horses and crops while my son and best friend rode into the future. 


End file.
